These days, content marketing has developed into one of the most productive approaches that help to attract leads 3 times more than classical methods.
In the article, we reveal what content marketing is, discover the main differences between B2B and B2C strategies and have a look at its first-rate tactics.
B2B or business to business involves trading of products, services, data between business rather than from business to single consumers which are indicated as B2C or business to consumers.
That’s settled, what does a content marketing indicate? It involves systematic producing and spreading useful, appropriate and dependable content to engage the target audience and expand it. The aim of content marketing is pushing readers to make fruitful client activity.
Desired consequences include leads generation, expansion of the base of the consumers, a breakthrough in trading, growth of brand awareness, and communities establishment.
Let’s dive into the peculiarities of B2B content marketing.
B2B content marketing
Taking into consideration the difference between B2B and B2C, it is quite evident that the marketing strategies of these industries are rather various, though they have some points in common.
The first point is that B2C has a large target market while B2B has a smaller focused one. The second aspect reveals that the buying cycle is longer in B2B. Another one informs us that B2C marketing is very personal and emotionally triggered while B2B one is less personal and more value-driven. One more dissimilarity comprises a variation of audiences. In B2B, it is seeking expertise and efficiency while in B2C, deals and amusement are in the centre of attraction. B2B strategy is depends on the relations with business buyers and in B2C products are more important than relationships. B2B tactics are focused on lead generation as long as B2C.
B2B content marketing examples
Below we will give an account of the most successful b2b content marketing examples.
The first one is General Electric that is one of the first-rate B2B reporters on the globe. It is the company that is headed by Alec Baldwin. The company is famous for their forefront microwave oven and television broadcasting branch. It has a lot of departments, areas, and assembly lines. However, the best example of the company’s B2B content marketing strategy is the Internet magazine The Txchnologist. The posts are intensified about front line high-tech improvements which assist with the promising clients to identify the advantages of General Electric products and to grasp how the machinery forms the planet.
Another best b2b content marketing involves Content Marketing Institute which is the chief authority when it comes to content marketing. Their posts are focused on the creation of the personal blogs in the most part, however, it is a never-ending source for B2B content marketing as well. What makes them be the leaders in the industry? The content of a Content Marketing Institute is not only exclusive, entertaining but also and what is more far-reaching it makes audiences to perform the targeted actions. Their advice is extremely and can be applied right away.
American Express is also in our list of the best B2B content marketing examples. It proposes tonnes of valued content which is concentrated on helping small companies to run their businesses. They write about the time-management, personal effectiveness, accounting, social media marketing and planning money.
And, certainly, we cannot but include the HubSpot blog. They write about two separate topics: sales and marketing. In this blog, you may find detailed guides, free resources, original data, research, and insight to their audiences.
B2B content marketing strategy
The key element of successful content marketing B2B is B2B content marketing strategies. Like every aspect in the marketing and any other field, making arrangements and tactics are what make your actions focused and oriented on the specific goal. Otherwise, your behavior in online presence can be chaotic and may not lead to the desired results.
You can go to a B2B content marketing agency and ask them to set up a strategy for your company or you can do one yourselves. The strategy begins with identifying your target audience.
Keep in mind that five years ago, the average Internet user has seen about 5000 ads a day. In 2019, this number is much higher. That is why, for businesses, it is more difficult to attract the readers and make them perform the target action.
To know who your target audience is, one should analyze the clients’ surveys, collect analytics and revise it. After gathering this data, establish the avatar of your client. It is possible that you will have several ones. You should discover what is helpful for your readers and what they require, what they like and dislike. After that, it is desirable to analyze behavioral statistics and pore over the population tally. Think of the lifestyle of your clients-to-be, how they think, where they eat, what they like to buy and consider how these aspects can affect their choices and behavior. Determine the attitude of the clients and the motivation about why they should use your service or product. Once it is done, illustrate the diverse scenarios of what happens when a person uses your product.
B2B content marketing statistics
B2B content marketing statistic is the key indicator of whether your content marketing is successful and how great this success is. As reported by Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2B sellers implement marketing and, of the 11% who don’t adopt content marketing, 52% are going to start applying it within a year. Unfortunately, only 37% out of this 89% have their content marketing strategy. 45% design their content right off the bat without any planning.
In addition to it, 47% of the promising customers read from 3 to 5 posts and only then they will contact the sales representative. This fact dispels any doubts about the significance and value of content marketing.
One more shocking fact is that the typical person is reading the content online only for 37 seconds. It is especially outrageous when we think about how much time we devote to content production and developing content marketing strategies.
Top content marketing for B2B
Apart from posting useful posts in your blog, you can put into action a lot of other sufficient
content marketing tactics. The first one might be developing of valued and illustrative infographics and gifographics. Another efficient option is shooting videos. Video marketing is one of the most adequate ones these days. It can be shot on a camera of your smartphone, it is not obligatory to use the most expensive cameras. The static images are less attractive and appealing than videos. Being natural is the trend in 2019.
Moreover, write and send newsletters to be connected with your readers and keep it involved and engaged. You can also write e-books, articles and host webinars that is valuable for your clients both the future and existing ones.
In order to build trust and loyalty to your brand and product, post your clients’ surveys. This is the most adequate way to make your potential clients to make their first purchase.
In addition to it, design case studies which greatly illustrate how your product solved the problems of your clients.
What kind of content to create for B2B content marketing
So, what kind of content to create for b2b content marketing? The first advice is the integration of storytelling. It is very important in the best b2b content marketing to be close with your readers and get attached to it. Storytelling is one of the most efficient ways to accomplish this goal. Storytelling increases sales and it should be very difficult to put into action since every company has the story to narrate.
For making a storytelling powerful and boosting its effect on your business, detect the requirements of your clients’ companies. After that, create a customer journey. It is the way from the moment a person learns about your product until their first purchase. Do your very best to design the most suitable texts which help to attract more leads and keep the current clients.
Sort your posts by type: segments, stages, persons. When talking about segments, you can classify the articles by job title, demographics, industry, purchase behavior, and so on. If we are speaking about stages, it signifies that the posts can be categorized by the various stages of the sales funnel your customers are currently on. As for the persons, it means that you should design diverse avatars of your clients for the content to be more personalized and useful for your audience.
One more point that can be carried out a guest blogging. It helps to build your brand and promote it on authoritative websites. Guest blogging is creating a blog post on other websites. It helps to build authority among your clients-to-be and expand their numbers.
In this article, we outlined the main prosperity and tactics of B2B content marketing, defined what this term conveys and mentioned some useful B2B content marketing statistic.
What B2B content marketing strategy you already implemented in a business and which of them you just discovered? Express your opinion in the comments below.